1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to liquid, water-free compounds for the production of laundry detergents, dishwashing detergents and cleaning formulations containing glycosides and nonionic surfactants, to the use of these compounds for the production of surface-active formulations and to a process for the production of solid detergents using the liquid compounds.
2. Description of the Related Art
Alkyl oligoglucosides are nonionic surfactants which are acquiring increasing significance by virtue of their excellent performance properties and their particularly advantageous ecotoxicological properties. By virtue of their foaming power, which is comparable with that of anionic surfactants, not only are they suitable for manual dishwashing detergents and hair shampoos, they are also of interest for use in the detergents field. The fact that alkyl oligoglucosides have hitherto been used almost without exception for liquid applications is attributable to the fact that glucosides on the one hand have a high melting range and, on the other hand, can be decomposed during the spray drying of water-containing surfactant slurries typically applied to powder-form products because the sugar structure of the surfactants does not allow temperatures above 120.degree. C. to be applied. Although it is of course possible subsequently to add alkyl oligoglucosides together with other temperature-labile detergent ingredients, for example perfume oils, enzymes and the like, to the tower powder, this has not proved to an economical option in the past.
In addition to the production of washing powders in spray drying towers, where hot drying gases are passed through the tower in countercurrent to the liquid compounds trickling down the tower in the form of fine droplets, recent years have seen the establishment of processes in which a liquid compound is sprayed onto a solid support and at the same time dried and granulated, for example in a mixer or in a fluidized bed. Although these processes operate at distinctly lower temperatures and thus basically enable alkyl oligoglucosides to be used, there is the problem that, even at temperatures in the range from 40.degree. to 60.degree. C., the glucosides are present as cutting-resistant pastes both in the form of their water-containing pastes and in the form of mixtures of those pastes with otherwise liquid nonionic surfactants typically used for detergent purposes. However, since liquid compounds are required for the granulation processes mentioned above, the mixtures would have to be melted and constantly heated before each use which would not only involve considerable outlay on equipment, it would also be uneconomical. Accordingly, the problem addressed by the present invention was to remedy this unfavorable situation.